I am looking for some lightweight Static Page Generator to turn a folder into http://localhost/index.html. This is used for internal training and demo only. So it doesn't need sass, less, live watch, etc.. None of that.
I have looked into grunt, node, jekyll... and they still require users to install something. I want users to just click on a .exe file and open web browser. That's it.
Is it possible to make current Static Page Generator to be portable .exe? Or is there a simple solution out there?
Off course we can !
Why don't you just put your static HTML/CSS/Script/Image files in any local disk folder and double click your Index.html which will open in your default browser and just work?
I think this is the simplest way and exactly what you need for demo or training purposes.
But it's true that instead of asking people to double click an EXE you'd ask them to double click Index.html file instead. If that's not a show stopper than this is the perfect and simplest solution you're looking for. To simplify things even further you can put just Index.html on folder root, and all other files in subfolders so users won't have problems finding correct file to double click.
If you still want your files to be accessible on http://localhost:port then your best bet would be some simple web server that can be run by double clicking an exe file and that specific folder would become accessible on localhost. One such server is mongoose. but you'll still need your content files. This time you can either use static files or dynamic ones (i.e. PHP).
Note on static page generators (SPG): SPGs can only simplify your work when creating static files that resemble distributable end result. They aren't web servers of any kind or be used in this manner. They do sometimes have this ability but that's usually just for testing purposes.
This means that by using SPG you can simplify your process before creating static end result. Simplification will be in the form of content includes (i.e. you won't have to duplicate the same HTML for menu in every HTML file), content formats support (markdown, LESS/SASS) etc. In the end you will still create static end result.